1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine used to automatically clean and condition magnetic tape cassettes.
2. Prior Art
Magnetic tape cassettes enjoy widespread use in the audio, video, and digital computer areas. The magnetic tape used in these areas is essentially the same, being comprised of polyester plastic coated with iron oxide which is capable of being magnetized and de-magnetized. With each use of a magnetic tape cassette contamination build-up occurs. At some point dirt particles on the tape surface can bring about sufficient head to tape separation to cause intermittent signal loss. This problem is especially detrimental to digital computer applications where data is not properly transferred from the tape resulting in inefficient computer operation.
Prior art has not developed an efficient, easy to operate, low cost device for cleaning magnetic tape cassettes. The majority of tape cleaners on the market today are for use with the larger 1/2" magnetic tape mounted on an individual reel. The conventional cleaning techniques employed by these devices include a wiper tissue, scraping grids, vacuum, or some sort of tape blade or scraping technique.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide an economical magnetic tape cassette cleaning machine that uses both a pad saturated with solution and a blade to remove oils and surface particles of all sizes from the front side of the tape. In connection with this objective, and pad should be fabricated of a material sufficient to uniformly spread the solution on the tape, while trapping any contaminants on the surface. The blade action should be capable of removing both the non-evaporated solution, and the dissolved contaminants suspended in the solution. A related objective is to provide a scraping surface that removes contaminants from the back side of the tape, so as not to re-contaminate the front side of the tape when rewound onto the cassette spindle.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a fresh cleaning pad for each cleaning cycle, such that each cleaning pad used is free from accumulated oil or contaminants which could reduce its cleaning effectiveness.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a means whereby a predetermined amount of cleaning solution is automatically delivered to the pad at the commencement of each cleaning cycle.
A further objective of this invention is to provide a tape cleaning machine that requires only the actuation of a lever and the pushing of a button, with no subsequent operator intervention required during the cleaning cycle.